The New Rules of Leadership
The COVID disruption of the past 16+ months changed everything: rhythms, routines and priorities.
Leading an organization has never been harder.
Here’s some of the New Rules of Leadership I’ve been learning along the way…
NEVER APOLOGIZE for Wanting Your Church to Grow
60 Seconds of Fast Leadership Fuel
Fight Your Fears by Making 'Em Laugh
The late Dr. Martin de Maat had a profound impact on my life (I wrote about that here). He was not only my professor and mentor, he was a close friend (Martin was even one of my wedding groomsmen!).
Dr. de Maat taught me so much not only about improvisational-comedy, but more importantly about the joy of doing life together:
"What happens... in being with each other in acceptance and Yes And-ing each other, is that you as an individual start to believe in yourself because you begin to see yourself in the others' eyes.
Your ensemble, your group, your team, your committee, is the one that's believing in you and you pull it together to do it for them.
You know, it's simply recognizing you're not alone. It's love and unconditional acceptance.
You put yourself in a place of support, unconditional acceptance and love for who you are, the way you are and your uniqueness, and what you do is grow. You surround yourself with people who are truly interested in you and listen to you, and you will grow.
And it doesn't take much to start advancing you, it doesn't take much of that support, it doesn't take much of that love and that care and you can do it. You can play act with people. You can be in a state of play together."
This is how comedians create new material.
Yes And leads to trust leads to contagious unity leads to childlike creativity.
Its how leaders might lead teams in the 21st Century.
Don't settle for the loneliness of leadership isolation.
Dream of and strive for a team of church leaders who are accepting of one another's uniquenesses. After all, we each bring different strengths to the table.
I love what Martin would say about the group dynamics of creating comedy through Yes And:
"There's a lot of laughter that goes on. Since we're laughing together, we're true community. It's a very safe place to confront your fears. The minute somebody says, 'Perform!' your fear comes up..."
As we Yes And, may we as leaders embrace contagious unity and laughter.
By refusing to perform and instead choosing raw, authentic community, we may just lead at a higher, deeper, more spiritually-sensitive level than before...
Books I Am Currently Reading
Leaders are learners; the moment you stop learning is also the moment you stop leading.
To that end, here’s a list of the books that I am currently reading while on a Staycation.
Deep & Wide by Andy Stanley — I originally read this amazing book when it first came out. I had NO IDEA that Andy’s church was birthed out of a painful church split. I find myself underlining new sentences this second time through the book with an additional ten years of leadership experience under my belt.
The Fate of the Apostles by Dr. Sean McDowell — I believe this book was McDowell’s doctorate thesis. Very detailed, weaving together all the ancient writings and historical documents we have on the original Apostles and their deaths between 30 AD - circa 90 AD.
Improvise by Mick Napier — I was fortunate to study under Mick Napier in the late 1990’s as Mick was directing The Second City’s Paradigm Lost, an award-winning, ground-breaking improvised revue starring then-unknown comedians like Scott Adsit (30 Rock), Kevin Dorff (Conan), Rachel Dratch (SNL), and Tina Fey (SNL, 30 Rock). I wrote about my experiences during this season of my life in my bestseller, Holy Shift.
The Satisfied Soul by John Piper — So, so good for my soul.
Mornings & Evenings by C.H. Spurgeon — Revisiting this old classic and being reminded again of just how big God is.
The Visual Word: Illustrated Outlines of the New Testament by Dr. Patrick Schreiner — Beautiful illustrations and fantastic summaries of each section of each New Testament narrative. A great addition for personal Bible Study.
The Emotionally Healthy Leader by Pete Scazerro — This past year I have been seeking to grow into a more healthy spiritual leader. Amber and I loved the original by Scazzero and can’t wait to feast more on these pages!
Guest Post: Josh Howerton on Sermon Plagiarism
Editor’s Note: Before coming to Lakepointe Church, Josh Howerton was the Senior Pastor of The Bridge Church in Nashville, TN for 10 years. After graduating from Union University with a degree in Theological Studies, he attended Southern Seminary. Josh is married to Jana, who he met on a blind date, and together they have three children – Eliana, Felicity Hope, and Hudson. Josh’s life passion is to make disciples, train church leaders, and plant churches. You can follow Josh on Twitter @HowertonJosh.
Josh Howerton on Sermon Plagiarism (Random Thoughts)
Ok, I’ll bite on being the dissenter in the “sermon plagiarism” convo. Will probably get canceled and have to mute this in 3, 2, 1…
Because they have a heart to help, almost every pastor tells other pastors to use anything from his sermons that’ll help them.
“If my bullet fits in your gun, shoot it!”: I’ve heard Adrian Rodgers, JD Greear, Craig Groeschel, Chris Hodges, Bob Russell, Rick Warren, etc all say this.
A church-sermon is not an academia-dissertation or a book/journalism-publication. We’re not preaching to make ourselves look good, sound smart, or sell something proprietary.
We’re preaching for life-change and to grow the kingdom.
“BUT THAT'S STEALING!”
If I gave them permission to use anything from my notes that would help them, that’s not stealing. It is stealing in book, journalism, and academic publication, because those things are zero-sum situations whose goal is revenue...
Author X says something in a book, that's the only place you can get that info, and is selling that book for income. So if Author Y also says it, that takes away Author X’s books sales and income. There's no permission, it's zero-sum, and for-profit.
Sermons are different...
Church planter X using my sermons A) has my permission, B) it diminishes me in no way, and C) actually serves to advance my original purpose in writing the sermon – to help people and grow the kingdom.
“BUT THAT'S LYING!
They’re passing off your information as if it’s their own.”
To this I say “lol” and "haha"
Guys, stop and think for a sec...
Pastors are TEACHERS.
In school 0% of people assume everything their teacher says is their teacher's 100% original thought and they didn’t get it from anywhere else. In fact, teachers are GIVEN lesson plans and and TOLD to use them as starting points of presentation.
Nobody hears a teacher finish teaching a lesson and says, “Step down IMMEDIATELY bc you didn’t cite the lesson plan you got that from!” Nobody hears a grammar teacher say, “I before E except after C” and says, “Fire him, he didn’t attribute!”...
No one sees a physics teacher do an experiment & calls for his dismissal b/c he didn’t mention where he first saw that object lesson. Why?
When teachers teach, ppl assume they’re pulling from whatever research / info sources they can to best help the students, which is the goal.
Because “there’s nothing new under the sun” and we’ve all been preaching the same Bible for 2000 yrs, it is a given that pastors draw from one another - illustrations, points, sayings, structure, etc - whatever BEST HELPS the people they’re teaching.
“BUT PASTORS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE GETTING THEIR OWN WORD FROM GOD FOR THEIR CHURCH!”
They are! That happens through the research process, not apart from it. Just like in commentaries, books, lectures, and articles, sometimes I’ll hear something in a sermon and think, “Yeah, that’s a word for our church right now,” think the Spirit wants me to deliver it, and I’ll use an illustration or a way of explaining a passage.
That is a "a word in season" that happened through research, not individual inspiration.
Not gonna go here, but if you REALLY wanna get salty, know who didn’t always cite sources? Bible writers. Gospel writers & others borrow liberally from the OT, sometimes citing, often just saying w/o citing bc in preaching what really matters is that ppl are helped w/ the truth.
All that to say, in the words of Pastor James Merritt: “If someone borrows liberally from one of my sermons and somebody gets saved because of it, I have an investment in it gladly.”
6 Steps to a Winning Relaunch
If we want our churches to grow and to reach more people for Christ, we have to learn to speak the same language.
Ask your team: Why does your church exist?
Everyone has a vision for your church, but you need to know why.
Vision & Values are required for your church to grow.
A program won't grow your church, but a process will.
Engagement
People are interested in spiritual things, but too often the church is answering questions that no one is asking.
Discover what keeps your neighbors up at night (HINT: usually it’s something involving finances or relationships). Use their felt need to take them to their greatest need!
In engagement comes explanation (see Nehemiah 8:1–10).
Make it clear and give the meaning to the people.Excellence
It's not about achieving perfection, it's about giving the best effort with what you have. Jesus has never given us anything but His absolute best!
Excellence doesn't always mean spending more money, but it does mean expending greater effort.Excitement
Listen, you need to become your church’s BIGGEST CHEERLEADER for EVERY Sunday!
The devil is excited if you’re not excited about this coming Sunday!!Patience
What a lot of churches call discipleship is nothing more than a form of control and manipulation. We cannot ‘microwave’ leaders!
Thank about it: What would happen if the church responded to spiritual babies the way we respond to our children?
We have to be patient with people.
Discipleship is not a program, it's a process.Kindness
What if the church was known because it was nice to people?
Jesus was kind! People will come to Christ if we preach the biblical version instead of the denominational version of Jesus.Remembrance
Don't ever forget what he's saved you from (2 Corinthians 1:26–31).
5 Bad Reasons to Leave a Church
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the Comments below!
